May 15, 2024
Portugal Picks Location for New Lisbon Airport After Tourism Boom
, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- Portugal picked the location for a new Lisbon airport, a project that successive governments have planned to build as the country attracted a rising number of tourists.
The new airport will be built in a military base near the town of Alcochete, about 22 miles from the Lisbon city center on the southern bank of the river Tagus, according to Prime Minister Luis Montenegro. Before becoming the capital city’s main airport, it will complement the existing Humberto Delgado airport, he said at a press conference in Lisbon on Tuesday night.
Portugal has for decades struggled to come up with a viable location to build a new Lisbon airport to accommodate record numbers of tourists. The country received more than 30 million visitors in 2023.
Many tourists arrive through Lisbon’s current airport, which is just a 15-minute drive from the capital’s city center and has been plagued by flight delays during the peak holiday season.
Infrastructure Minister Miguel Pinto Luz said at the same press conference that the new airport is expected to be ready in 10 to 15 years. An independent technical commission has estimated that a new airport with two runways would cost about €6.1 billion ($6.6 billion).
Read more: TAP Says It Won’t Be Easy to Complete Privatization in 2024
In the meantime, the minister said Portuguese airport operator ANA will have to revamp the city’s current airport until the new infrastructure is ready. ANA, which is controlled by Vinci SA, manages the 82-year-old Lisbon airport that has become a main European hub for flights to Brazil and to some destinations in Africa.
“ANA is obliged to carry out the necessary work so that Portugal doesn’t continue to lose millions of passengers as it does today,” Pinto Luz said.
ANA said in an emailed statement that it will proceed with developing the government’s decision, under the terms of the concession contract.
The government said it will also invest in the construction of a third bridge over the river Tagus in Lisbon and a planned high-speed railway link to Madrid.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
